


Love You Tomorrow

by Cereal_Forks



Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics), Young Justice - All Media Types
Genre: Cassandra Cain is Batman, Future Fic, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2020-01-17
Packaged: 2021-02-18 12:23:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 10,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21610843
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cereal_Forks/pseuds/Cereal_Forks
Summary: Conner let Tim go and Tim went to his jet and flew away.Two weeks later news spread across the costumed crimefighting community that, to everyone’s surprise, Cassandra Cain would be the next caped crusader. The silent knight was joined by the world’s greatest detective, her brother who all but vanished off the physical map, only existing inside rumours and quotes. A month later Batwoman joined the Justice League to fill the hole Batman left. It took a couple months for the Titans to completely disband to focus on their solo work. Flamebird and the rest of the Teen Titans were more than capable of defending San Francisco themselves. Two years later a new Robin rose to grace Gotham’s streets.It was three years later. Tim Drake still hadn’t called for that party.
Relationships: Bart Allen & Tim Drake & Kon-El | Conner Kent & Cassie Sandsmark, Cassandra Cain & Carrie Kelley, Cassandra Cain & Tim Drake, Tim Drake & Carrie Kelley, Tim Drake/Kon-El | Conner Kent
Comments: 15
Kudos: 124





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome everybody to my newest AU that you never knew you needed, but you did! This is a future AU, inspired largely by that one panel in the unternet arc in Red Robin with all the Teen Titans all grown up after taking over for their mentors and it made me happy, and obviously we can't have that, so I made it sad, and it can be happy again later after we work for it. So this is a TimKon fic after drifting apart years before, with special focus on Tim and Cass being the brother-sister duo we can never appreciate enough. Tags will be updated as characters appear. I hope everyone enjoys it.

He’d hoped to disappear quietly into the night. To pack his bag and leave his room barren for Bart or Kon to find when they went looking for him to join them for movie night in a couple hours. But when he opened the door, he was met with a scowling face.

“Cassie, hey, movie time already?” He tried to position his bag behind his body. He could make this work. Go to the bathroom and never come back, although that wouldn’t give him the head start he had hoped for, it could work, Tim was nothing if not adaptable.

“You’re leaving,” Cassie said bluntly.

There was no use keeping secrets from her. “Gotham emergency, I don’t have a choice,” Tim said.

“You aren’t planning on coming back,” Cassie said.

Tim let his bag slide off his shoulder. “What makes you say that?”

“You’re trying to sneak away without even telling Conner, and you’ve gutted your room,” Cassie observed.

It was true. Tim had stripped the walls of their metal posters and hidden his collection of pictures of the team in his bag. “This is different.”

“Anything we can help with?” Cassie asked.

“No, it’s bat business.”

“How much can you tell me?”

“Not much, I don’t have many details myself, but it’s really bad, Cassie,” Tim said. Cassie waited for a proper answer. “It’s Batman, he took a hit, Oracle wants all hands-on deck, they don’t know if he’ll ever be able to bounce back from this one, he might never be Batman again, he’s too old for this, he can’t take the hard hits.”

“They aren’t asking you to step up,” Cassie asked.

“I don’t know,” Tim confessed. “I know who I’d rather take the cowl, but if he asks me to, I can’t just say no.”

“Dick can’t do it?”

“He’s set on retirement, he’s got a baby coming, no one’s going to ask him to put his family in danger when there’s so many of us, and Jason isn’t an option for obvious Jason-related reasons, Damian’s too young, he isn’t ready for it, Duke doesn’t want it, full stop, we’re low on options,” Tim said.

“That kind of sucks,” Cassie said. She knew how her friend feared how closely he resembled his mentor.

“I just hope he’s okay,” Tim confessed.

“What does this mean for the team? You’re going to start running with the Justice League instead?” Cassie asked.

“I hope not, I’m not ready for Batman, let alone the League,” Tim said.

“Well, whatever happens, remember, you aren’t Batman, you have friends.”

“I know.”

“You need to say goodbye to Kon and Bart too.”

Tim’s face contorted, like Cassie had presented him with a green vegetable. “Cassie, I can’t.”

“You have to, they’ll be breaking down every door in Gotham if you try to disappear on them,” Cassie said.

“But if I talk to them, they’ll make me want to stay, and I can’t stay, even if I do really want to,” Tim said.

“You can always say no,” Cassie said.

“No, I can’t,” Tim said, “I’m sorry, Cassie, the others are waiting for me, I really need to go.”

Cassie sighed and stepped out of the way to let Tim lift his bag again and leave Titans Tower for good. He tried to be logical. He wasn’t a teenager anymore. Teens had turned to just calling themselves Titans, and they’d had a good run. But it was time to grow up, and if Tim had to be the first to do so, so be it.

“Tim!”

He was on the roof, ready to climb into his jet when there was a gust of wind and his best friends stood in front of him, blocking the way.

“Are you really leaving without saying goodbye?” Bart asked.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” Conner asked.

“Cassie told you,” Tim said.

“I sure did.” He turned to see she was trailing behind him as well.

“You thought you were just going to disappear on us without saying anything?” Conner asked. He was mad.

“I didn’t want to ruin the day,” Tim said.

“The day’s pretty ruined,” Conner said.

“Why would you quit? We’ve always stuck together,” Bart said.

“Cassie told you what happened in Gotham?” Tim asked.

“Batman’s hurt, you’re volunteering as tribute,” Bart said.

“No, I’m not volunteering, I’m just expecting him to ask me,” Tim said.

“Tim, you don’t want to be Batman, you’ve never wanted to be Batman, every time we’ve seen you as Batman in the future, you’ve been evil,” Conner said.

“I know that,” Tim said.

“So, where do you think you’re going?” Conner asked.

“I can’t just leave him,” Tim said.

“He left you,” Bart reminded.

“That was years ago,” Tim said, “he’s my dad, if he asks me to stay, to be Batman and protect Gotham, I’ll stay.”

“And if we ask you to stay?” Conner asked.

“You wouldn’t do that to me.”

“I am.”

Tim sighed and let his bag drop to the ground again. “Conner, guys, I don’t know what’s going to happen over there, but one way or another, things in Gotham are about to change, and they’re going to need me there, whether it’s as Batman or not, I don’t know, but I can’t just let it all fall apart, I can’t let my dad kill himself trying to fight crime if I can do it for him, don’t ask me to choose between families.”

Conner sighed.

“We can’t stop you, but we really do wish you would stay,” Cassie said.

“I can’t.”

“I want to throw a party,” Bart said.

“What?”

“If you’re leaving, we need to throw you the biggest going away party in the world,” Bart said.

“Bart, I’m sorry, but I’m kind of on a tight schedule, my mentor’s been badly injured, remember?”

“Eidetic memory, I’ll remember for longer than you,” Bart reminded.

“He gets badly injured every other week,” Cassie said.

“This is different, I’m really sorry, but I need to go now.”

“Then we’ll throw a party later,” Bart declared, “pick a day, we’ll throw a big party.”

“When things settle down, sure, we’ll have a party,” Tim agreed.

Bart threw himself around Tim. Tim couldn’t put into words how relieved he was that their resident speedster had never grown much taller than him. They were close enough that they bickered about it often. Bart knew he had that half an inch, and he was proud of it, but Tim swore up and down that it was Bart’s obscene hair. Either way, they were both short, but with fully grown Conner and Cassie standing as giants at 6’2” and 5’11” respectively, Tim appreciated that there was one person left on the team who didn’t need to lean down to hug him.

Bart’s hugs were tight and warm and fast. He let go and held Tim at arm’s length.

“You’ll call? Or text?”

“Of course,” Tim said.

“We’re going to miss you,” Cassie said. Her hugs were strong, they crushed a little bit and lifted his feet millimeters off the ground.

“I wouldn’t leave if I didn’t need to, you know that,” Tim promised.

That only left Conner.

He was still scowling.

“Kon—”

“Don’t,” Kon said. “Nothing sappy, just bring it in here.”

Conner’s hugs were Tim’s favourites. Warm like Bart’s and strong like Cassie’s. And Tim could bury his head between Conner’s neck and shoulder while Kon folded over him placing his face in Tim’s hair and the two of them could just stand there wrapped around each other. They were the reason Tim didn’t want a proper goodbye, Conner could make him want to stay in one spot, in one moment forever.

“Don’t forget about us over here,” Conner whispered.

“Couldn’t if I tried, Titans together,” Tim whispered back.

“Titans forever,” Conner agreed.

He let Tim go and Tim went to his jet and flew away.

Two weeks later news spread across the costumed crimefighting community that, to everyone’s surprise, Cassandra Cain would be the next caped crusader. The silent knight was joined by the world’s greatest detective, her brother who all but vanished off the physical map, only existing inside rumours and quotes. A month later Batwoman joined the Justice League to fill the hole Batman left. It took a couple months for the Titans to completely disband to focus on their solo work. Flamebird and the rest of the Teen Titans were more than capable of defending San Francisco themselves. Two years later a new Robin rose to grace Gotham’s streets.

It was three years later. Tim Drake still hadn’t called for that party.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to try to post a chapter a week, so look forward to this on Fridays!

There was a knock on the door, and Conner went to get it. He’d ordered a pizza, but only five minutes ago, and there was no way it would be arriving so soon unless they had Bart working for them. He didn’t think he was expecting anyone else.

“Hi, Kon-el,” Clark said when the door opened.

Conner let his eyes widen a little and checked down the hallway that Clark was the only one out there. He was in full Clark Kent garb, suit jacket that still fit awkwardly in the shoulders and those dorky glasses, he had one of Jon’s old backpacks in his hand, a Flash one from a few years ago, Conner remembered the argument in which Jon insisted that having a Superman backpack would be too obvious. To hell with the fact that he lived in Metropolis and every single other fifth grader had a Superman backpack.

“You can’t just call me that in public, Clark,” Conner hissed.

“Sorry,” Clark chuckled, “mind if I come in?”

“Nah, got a pizza coming though, and I’m not sharing,” Conner said.

“That’s fine, Lois already made dinner,” Clark said.

“Cool, how is she?” Conner asked.

“She’s well, she thinks she’s got another big story coming up this week,” Clark said.

“Oh yeah? Another Superman story?” Conner asked.

“Should be,” Clark agreed.

“Cool, let me know when it comes out, and what it says, I’ll be sure to tell her I read it,” Conner said.

“I think you might want to read this one for yourself,” Clark said.

“Yeah?”

That was suspicious. And Clark had been wearing a big dopey grin since he ducked his head through the doorframe and entered Conner’s small apartment. He was trying to keep a secret. Considering who Clark Kent really was, he was horrible at keeping secrets.

“Yeah,” Clark agreed.

“How’s Jon?” Conner asked. It wouldn’t be the first time Clark reached out just to gush about Conner’s brother. Although, he usually just called.

“He’s still loving high school, and he’s finally settling in on the Titans, it took a while for Flamebird to warm up to him being there, everyone on the team’s so much older than him, I do hope they let Beacon join the team for him soon, but I think Impulse really helped to bring Flamebird around, at least,” Clark said. Right. The New Teen Titans. They’d started running around just before Conner’s team officially disbanded. He missed being on a team sometimes, Bart, Cassie, and all the rest. Tim.

“Jaime’s sister is only a couple years older, they’re all only a couple years older,” Conner said.

“A couple of years are a big deal for someone Jon’s age,” Clark pointed out.

“I guess you’re right.”

There was a beat of silence.

“Okay, I give, what’s up?” Conner asked.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, what are you doing knocking on my door at night without any warning?” Conner asked.

“Can’t I just come out to visit my son every once and awhile?” Clark asked.

Conner never quite got over the buzz that ran through his whole body when Clark called him his son. “Sure, but you want something, I can tell, you’re horrible at secrets.”

Clark seemed to give up a little. “This isn’t really the place for this, come fly for a second?”

“What about my pizza?” Conner asked.

“I’ve put some thought into it, and there’s a special place I had in mind to do this, and I think you’ll agree with me,” Clark said.

Conner cast a glance at his door. “Fine, but I’m keeping an ear open for that pizza.”

Clark laughed and led Conner up, up and away, all the way to the Arctic.

“Do you remember the first time we talked here?” Clark asked as they stepped down in the Fortress of Solitude. Clark let them in and led Conner through the familiar crystal halls that held all the Kryptonian heritage on the planet.

“I think it was the time I chewed you out for not telling me you had a secret identity,” Conner said.

Clark couldn’t remember if that had happened here, he was pretty sure that happened in Metropolis. “I was thinking of a fonder memory,” he admitted.

Conner thought about it for a moment, letting the leftover bitterness of that moment wash away for a fonder thought.

“My name,” Conner realized. Clark nodded. “You know, I think that still might be the happiest day of my life, I sobbed all the way back to Cadmus, all snotty and everything, I could hardly see where I was going, and that kind of trip already took me almost a whole day back then,” Conner recalled. “Then, when I got to Cadmus, I told Guardian and all the others to ask me my name and I was so proud that I had a real answer, then I went to Young Justice and told them to ask me too, I can’t remember ever being happier.”

“Well, I hope you like this name just as much,” Clark said.

“What?”

Clark was offering Jon’s backpack.

“Gee, Clark, thanks, but I don’t think I could wear this if I wanted to, and I really don’t want to,” Conner confessed. Bart would never let him live it down.

“No, open it,” Clark said.

Conner found neatly folded red fabric. “What is this?” Clark just nodded for him to continue.

It was a cape. Red and billowing in Conner’s hands, with the S on the back in gold.

“The rest of the costume’s in there too, but I imagine you’d want to redesign it a little, so you don’t need to wear that if you don’t want to,” Clark said.

“What is this?” Conner asked again.

“It’s yours, if you want it, that is,” Clark said.

“You mean—”

“I would be proud to not only call you Kon-el, or to call you my son, but to call you Superman,” Clark said.

Conner thought he might be crying. His vision was blurry on the edges and his face felt warm. Everything he’d ever wanted, ever since he first opened his eyes in Cadmus labs, and now he was literally holding it in his hands.

“Are you sure? You don’t want to save it for Jon?” Conner asked.

“This is what you were born for, Kon-el, and you deserve it,” Clark said.

Conner was definitely crying. He and Clark didn’t hug often, it was a little awkward, but how else could he show his gratitude?

Clark gave him a firm pat on the back before Conner pulled away to wipe at his face.

“Try it on,” Clark suggested.

Conner did, he ran out of the room with cape in one hand and backpack in the other to change at superspeed into the whole ensemble. Clark was right, he would want to change it up, Clark’s look had hardly changed in what felt like eighty years, and whenever he did try to change it was always for the worse. The cape would stay though. Conner had spent his whole life waiting for this cape.

“You look good,” Clark said. “Now, I’ll show you all the resources you’ll have here at the Fortress, which will be at your disposal whenever you want, you’re already in the computer’s system with unrestrained access to everything, I removed the last set of locks last night, Kara says she isn’t sure about you joining the Justice League right away, and I agree with her, you should wait until you’ve settled into being Superman, maybe for a couple of months, but whenever you’re ready, let her know, she’s got a spot for you on the team.”

“Thank you, Kal, this is really too much,” Conner said.

“No, Kon-el, you deserve this,” Clark assured. “Now get going, Lois has been itching for an exclusive with the new Superman since I told her I was planning this.”

Conner laughed and rubbed the last stray tears from his eyes before he lifted off again. That night, Metropolis met their new Man of Steel. It took him two weeks before a crime blossomed to leave him in over his head.

The scene of the crime was bloody. Conner felt something rising up in his throat when he hovered above the crimson floor to avoid tampering with anything. He swallowed hard on the feeling, but it sat in his throat anyways, leaving him feeling grimy and disgusting.

“Superman, where have you been?” Maggie asked.

“International waters, Commissioner Sawyer,” Superman answered, “it’s hard to believe that shipwrecks still happen, ships have been around since forever.”

“Well, I sure hope it was important as you’re making it sound,” Maggie said.

“What happened here?” Conner asked.

“Jury’s still out, we got the call from a neighbor only half an hour ago, said she heard a struggle next door, we got here five minutes later, the perp was already gone, I’ve got officers questioning around the building, so far no luck with any suspects,” Maggie said.

“You think it was a metahuman?” Conner asked.

“Still in the air, but I have a hunch, something about this isn’t your everyday murder.” Maggie was a good officer, Conner trusted her, and her hunches. Her faith in him wasn’t quite so steady, he knew she would rather be dealing with her sister-in-law, but Kara was off planet with the Justice League. Conner was waiting just as eagerly for the League’s return, resisting the temptation to fly off into space himself to tell Cassie all about his new name was just about driving him nuts. One way or another, though, Maggie was family in a strange, backwards way, she knew all of his names, she had congratulated him on the newest one when he told her the news, and she trusted him a whole tenth of the distance he could throw her, which was still very far.

“Mind if I?”

“Just don’t touch anything.”

The body reeked. Sweet and bloody, Conner inhaled all of it and tried not to gag. The corpse had been gutted open like an autopsy. With her skin out of the way, her ribs had been snapped and haphazardly strewn about before her organs could be removed with just as little care. The carcass was then stuffed with candy. Lollipops and candy bars, none wrapped. Conner wished he was more of a detective as he stared at the scene of the crime. He tried to use his superior vision to pick up fingerprints or footprints or any other clue. Anything he could go off of.

“Notice anything?” Maggie asked.

“Only that this isn’t the kind of crime that happens in Metropolis,” Conner said. “Feels like more of a Gotham thing.”

“You’re right about that, thought I got away from this kind of gore when I transferred back here,” Maggie agreed.

“Nothing particularly metahuman I can tell though, sorry, not sure this is necessarily a job for Superman,” Conner confessed.

“I didn’t expect much,” Maggie agreed, “just thought you should stay in-the-know about this sort of thing, this scene has serial killer written all over it, we want to stop him as quickly as possible, if it gets too big, you know it’s gonna end up on your head. Figured it best to tell you before it shows up online in half-an-hour.”

“I appreciate the heads-up, Commissioner,” Conner said.

Superman promised Maggie to help however he could before flying away. Serial killers weren’t exactly his forte. He’d leave the police to do the detective work, and when they found whatever Hallowe’en candy demon was to blame, he would punch the hell out of it if they asked him to.

That was the plan for one whole night before he heard the police commissioner whisper into the dark sky.

He met her at the coroner’s office in seconds. He hated the smell of this place, too.

“Long time no see, commissioner,” Conner said.

“We’ve got a break in the case,” Maggie said.

“Already?”

“Don’t get too excited, it’s bad news, I’m going to need you to get in touch with some more of those caped friends of yours,” Maggie said. She offered him a plastic baggie with a single piece of evidence inside.

Conner had to squint to figure out what he was looking at, it was soaked through with sugar and syrup and blood. Lots of blood. His stomach flipped and his throat dried up when he realized what it was.

A single playing card.

The Joker.

He hadn’t dealt with the guy often, but the few times he had were some of the worst encounters of his life. Encounters that made his skin crawl, with Tim by his side shaking with hate for the clown that Conner had never known his Robin could feel. He remembered stories Tim told him too. Quiet, frightened whispers about Jason Todd or Christmas Eve. He remembered a quiet confession at midnight in Titans Tower that he wished Nightwing had killed him. He wished he stayed dead. He wished if one person in all of history had never been born, or could drop dead right that second, the Joker was it.

“You lose Batwoman’s number?” Conner asked when the initial shock had faded.

“Off world with the rest of the League,” Maggie reminded.

Conner thought Batwoman had retired already. Or was it that she was planning to retire? He knew it was one or the other. Maybe she was on one last mission before stepping down.

“You’re sure you’re okay with Bats taking over your case?” Conner asked.

“There a reason you don’t want to make this call?” Yeah, he was pretty sure Tim had blocked his number three years ago. And he wasn’t sure what he would do if he hadn’t.

“No, you want a bat infestation, you’ve got one,” Conner said.

“Tell her to drop by my office, I’ll have the case file ready for her.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally a chance to write some good dad Clark, if any of you remember my other chapter fic, you'll know I have a bad habit of not making Clark the best dad, whoops. But here, he's a good dad! And he loves his clone son! Also, I know Jon doesn't really fit in with the pre-n52 timeline, but shh, he's here, he's baby, he's part of the Teen Titans with Damian, Milagro (who gets to be a Green Lantern because that's what she deserves and is one of many things the new 52 cheated us out of), Irey, and probably some others that will show up in later chapters. Don't ask me what Conner's superhero name was between being Superboy and Superman because I don't know, all that matters is he's got his dream job: Superman.
> 
> This chapter was originally two chapters, so it reads a little weird, but they were too short to post separately so I merged them together. Next up is the dynamic duo you never knew you needed, Cassandra Cain and Carrie Kelley! Jason Todd is also there.
> 
> Thanks for reading, I'll be back next week.


	3. Chapter 3

Jason wasn’t sure what to make of the little redhead girl snapping her gum in what had once been Bruce’s chair. She was tall but thin, all arms and legs, completely coated in freckles, with big green eyes behind thick-rimmed glasses and short hair that curled in a carefully maintained swoop. Jason remembered being Robin himself once. He remembered Bruce hoisting him up by the back of his cape and dropping him off in a different, far less comfortable chair. Bruce didn’t even feel the need to supervise this Robin himself. He’d asked Jason to babysit her and gone to bed early like the old man he was.

Bruce never would have left Dick to babysit Jason when he was grounded. He definitely wouldn't have left Jason as he was now to babysit Jason when he was that age.

But Bruce had mellowed out a lot in the last few years. Staying home still drove him crazy, it was even worse after he had been banned from the comms for being overbearing. But now he had grandkids he had no interest in traumatizing, only spoiling. Tommy was spoiled rotten, and Bruce had already spent millions on the next baby, even though Dick and Babs insisted they could reuse some of Tommy’s old stuff. He adored this kid too, she was even allowed to spend her grounding on the computer, with a half-blind amputee with a long history of crime and murder as her only supervision. In Bruce's defence, he wasn't sure how readily he would have left Jason with the kid if he still had both functioning legs and eyes.

Jason didn’t even know the kid’s last name. The caped crusaders had picked her up while he was off getting himself mutilated like some sort of amateur idiot. He’d come home with one eye left to see her proudly declaring that it was not too cold for shorts and pixie boots were back in style.

“You’re staring again,” Carrie told him.

“Screw off,” Jason growled. Carrie shrugged and snapped her gum again.

The cave was silent for a moment while Carrie focused on her homework on the big bat-computer and Jason sat there. Useless. He’d been sitting around useless for a while, now. He pretended to show an interest in the files Tim had asked him to look over, but it was hard when he knew they were just supposed to make him feel useful, and Team Batman didn’t really need his help.

He let the girl snap her gum and tried not to stare at her anymore.

The computer began to beep about an incoming call almost right after he made that decision.

“Goodbye Newton!” Carrie exclaimed, eagerly slamming her notebooks closed and shoving them off the table in her excitement, turning her full attention to the monitors.

“What’s that?” Jason asked, gathering his crutches and hobbling closer to see. The words “Clone Boy” flashed across the screen.

“Wow, and I thought Batman was a stupid name,” Carrie observed. She seemed to always be looking for opportunities for quips and banter. “Do we know this guy?”

“Tim’s old Super Boy-Toy,” Jason replied.

“Detective had a boyfriend?” Carrie asked.

“Nah, he’s too much of a prude, he wishes though,” Jason said.

“Anyone ever tell you how much we appreciate your straightforwardness and clarity?” Carrie asked.

“What?”

“Just making sure no one’s lying to you.”

“Shut up and answer the damn call,” Jason said.

“That’s the answer I was looking for,” Carrie said. She answered the call. “Go for Batman, how can I help you?”

“Hey Clone,” Jason greeted.

“Hood.” His voice was frosty. Still hadn’t forgiven him for the whole beating Tim to a bloody pulp in Titans Tower thing. It happened ages ago, but the kid wasn’t the forgive-and-forget type. “Heard you got yourself in some trouble lately.”

He was mocking him. Jason tried not to growl. He’d stopped seeing green years ago, but he almost wished he’d hadn’t so he would have an excuse when he tore the Super-Brat’s arm off, no kryptonite required. “Skip the small talk, what do you want, Clone.”

“It’s Superman, these days.” These past fifteen days. “I need to speak to Batman.”

“Oh! Batman told me about that! Said a bunch of other heroes were throwing a big party, and Flamebird gets to go, but I don’t.” Damian would be coming on Jon’s invitation. Conner would actually prefer his absence.

“Party isn’t until the JL gets back, who is this?” Conner asked.

“You’ve got Robin on the line, what can I do for you?” Carrie chirped.

“I’ve got a case in Metropolis I think Batman’s going to want to take a look at,” Conner replied.

“Hands are pretty full here in Gotham, you got any details for me? I can pass them along for Detective to look at,” Carrie suggested.

“No, I think she’s going to want to come in person for this one,” Conner said.

“Spit it out, Clone Boy, don’t dance around the issue,” Jason spat.

“There was a murder last night, technically early this morning, evidence is suggesting it might have something to do with the Joker.”

Carrie flinched a little and grit her teeth. She hadn’t been there, but she’d heard stories. She’d seen scars. Jason had been there. He remembered the frantic call from Dick begging him to hurry back to Gotham. He remembered searching frantically for two whole months, Dick and Bruce both offering to take their masks back. He remembered the damage. Cass bringing their brother home, not being able to tell if he was laughing or sobbing but either way he was halfway to suffocating himself. Jason tightened his grip on his crutches until his knuckles were white and he dared them to splinter.

“That isn’t possible,” Jason said.

“I know, it’s unlikely, but—”

“No, it isn’t possible.”

“It’s the only evidence we’ve got.”

“Whoever you’re looking for, the Joker ain’t your guy.”

“But what if he is?”

“Listen, Clone, the Joker’s been dead for three years, he isn’t your guy.”

There was a beat.

“What?”

“Robin, hang up.”

“But—”

“We’re done talking.”

“I’ll let Batman know,” Carrie quickly said before hanging up, the so-called Superman still sputtering over something intelligible.

The Batcave was silent.

“Jason?” Carrie asked.

“You know how to drive?” Jason asked.

“Huh?”

“Drive! What are you stupid?” Jason growled.

Carrie set her jaw. “No!”

“Then get in the fucking car, you’re driving.” Jason limped towards the batmobile. Cass rarely used it, she was a pretty cruddy driver, but sometimes Tim would take it out, if he had to hit the streets for himself.

“I’m not allowed to use the batmobile, I’m grounded, also, I’m technically only fourteen so I need to put my goggles and costume on, so can you please wait up?” Carrie said. She grabbed the keys and chased after Jason.

“I’ll take the blame, tell the cops I held you at gunpoint, I don’t care, just drive,” Jason ordered.

“I need to tell B before I go out, if he comes down here he’s gonna freak out,” Carrie insisted.

“Tell him the same thing, I don’t give a fuck, I don’t have time for this, get in the fucking car,” Jason ordered.

“Where are we going?” Carrie asked.

“Arkham.” The place had been out-of-commission for years. There was only one thing of interest left there.

“Can I call Batman first?” Carrie asked.

“Do you want me to make the gunpoint threat real? I said fucking drive, right now,” Jason snapped. He didn’t miss how her sneaky narrow fingers found themselves pressing the button that would send Batman a silent alarm as she pretended to fumble with the keys, but he didn’t care. Batman condemned Jason for many things he had done, and he couldn’t blame her for a lot of them, but she wouldn’t get mad at his hatred. Not for the clown.

His death had been a big spectacle, a final act the twisted bastard could be proud of, but the funeral had been a quiet affair, there was no big show, most of the world didn’t even know he was dead, no one wanted to face the power grab his death would have triggered. He had no ceremony, just a few bats to dispose of the body behind the ruins of Arkham. There wasn’t even a marker, but that was fine, Jason had memorized that he was buried eighteen paces away from the big tree Harley had carved their initials into a long time ago. The point had been that no one would ever come looking for him again, they could all try to forget, he didn’t deserve to be remembered. But Jason remembered anyways, just in case anything like this ever happened. It wasn’t exactly unheard of in their line of work.

Batman arrived about ten minutes after Jason and Carrie did. Jason had realized the shovels they had once kept stashed in the trunk had been removed at some point, probably because Batman used the car so rarely. Jason wasn’t deterred, he dropped to his knees and started clawing at the dirt with his bare hands. Carrie stood off to the side, unsure of whether she was supposed to help or stay out of his way. He’d never been on this end of digging up a grave before.

“You’re grounded,” Cass said when she arose from the darkness.

Carrie jumped, not noticing her mentor’s arrival. Tension and fear still hung heavy from her shoulders, but relief poured out of her every movement when she saw Batman arrive. “God! We—no, not the time, sorry, thank god you’re here.”

Cass passed Carrie to grab Jason, yanking him out of the hole he had begun to dig. “Stop,” she ordered.

“Get off,” Jason growled.

Batman gripped his wrist tighter and he could feel her glare through the cowl. She would snap his wrist with one hand if he didn’t listen to her, she’d done it before, when they were both younger and he’d implied she couldn’t. Losing a hand would make digging even harder.

But he couldn’t just stop.

“Superman called, the new one, he has a case for us, uh, it’s sort of a doozy,” Carrie explained while Jason was still debating whether or not the fight was worth picking.

Batman turned her glare but didn’t lighten her hold. “Explain,” she demanded.

“Oh, wow, putting me on the spot here, uh, Superman called and he says the Joker’s killing people in Metropolis but you say he’s dead and then Jason freaked out and that’s freaking me out, I wanted to call you and Detective right away, but he wanted to come here, and then he started yelling, so I did what he said, and now we’re here,” Carrie said quickly, wringing her hands and missing the fact that she couldn’t play with her gloves.

Carrie trailed off and all three of them were silent. “How long ago?” Batman asked.

“He just called like, twenty, thirty minutes ago, I think,” Carrie said.

“When was the crime?”

“I think he said last night, we didn’t really talk about it.”

Carrie couldn’t see it, but she knew Batman was scowling.

“It isn’t my fault! Jason freaked out,” Carrie said.

“And I will continue to freak out until I’m sure that fucker is still dead, now let go,” Jason ordered.

Batman fixed him in a final glare, sizing him up, reading him for sincerity, She let his wrist go. “Dig him up, test in the cave, move fast, Robin, help him, meet back in the cave when you’re done.”

“Where are you going?” Carrie asked. Fear started filling her movements again.

“I need to talk to Detective, meet you at the cave,” Cass assured. And she was gone into the night. 

She didn't think about how she was leaving Jason and Carrie to dig until their fingers bled and Carrie touched decomposing flesh with a scream and Jason pushed her out of the way to finish the job for himself. She didn't think of them getting home and Bruce freezing in his tracks before he could get mad at them for sneaking out. She didn't think of the relief that came when the match came back. She only thought of her brother. Her brother and the way he began to shake when she told him what had happened. His shoulders shook and he bit his tongue to keep the laughter down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All cards on the table, I guess I should discuss Jason first, because I have a lot to say about his depiction in this fic, and I think I really nailed setting him up in this chapter. I wasn't sure about it at first, but I think Jason will have a small arc in this story, at first I was worried it would distract from the main storylines, which are of course, Kon's, Tim's, and Cass', but after writing this chapter, Jason has his own thing going on that's worth delving into a little bit.
> 
> So, Jason lost a leg and an eye in some big fight with I think a whole bunch of ninjas, I think that's something evil future Tim mentions happening in the future in Rebirth, and I decided to run with it. It happened pretty recently, and he moved back in with the Bats after they rescued him from that situation, and he's staying in the cave while he adjusts. It's slow going because he hates feeling like he needs their help. He's still on fairly rocky ground with the family, but they've been working at getting better for a while now. I'm gonna be honest, I hate the way they treated his relationship with the rest of the Bats from the New 52 onwards because I feel like they skipped all the character development straight to the part where he was part of the family again and I don't know why, but there are no canon comics in which he apologizes for how he tried to kill Tim and Damian or laughed when Blüdhaven blew up, or literally makes up with anybody, like, I get that he wasn't in his right mind and it isn't entirely his fault, but there's no character development at all, he's just magically all buddy-buddy with everyone and the comics never earned that relationship. So, I wanted to scrutinize his relationships with everyone a little, and that will come out more later, but it's already implied here that Cass isn't his biggest fan. Tbh, I super don't get people who act like Cass and Jason would be best friends, she takes the no-killing rule more seriously than Bruce himself, I think they can definitely learn to tolerate and respect each other, but friendship will take a lot of work, and I think we'll get to play with that a little too.
> 
> I also wanted to discuss Carrie a little, I don't know her super well, and I'm not the biggest fan of the Dark Knight Returns, and I haven't read any of it's sequels, tbh, I don't really get why it needs sequels. But I really liked the idea of pairing Carrie with Cass, so I did, and I hope I did okay, I intend for her to show up a lot.
> 
> Thanks for reading as always.


	4. Chapter 4

“Hi.”

Conner nearly tore the building in with his eyes when a sudden voice filled his apartment just as he touched down in his humble excuse for a living room.

“Long time no see,” Batman said as she let the shadows of the dark room fall off her shoulders as if shrugging off a coat.

“Batman,” Conner greeted. This wasn’t exactly the meeting place he’d had in mind, in his apartment and all, and he hadn’t cleaned since he moved in, but at least Conner was still wearing the cape and suit. He’d expected her to call him back and they’d settle the details over the phone. “I wasn’t sure you were coming,” he confessed.

“Joker imposter is no joke,” Batman said.

There was a rattling noise and the hallway closet fell open to let a little redheaded girl in a yellow cape fall into his hallway. Her costume was reminiscent of the pre-Tim era, although she had the decency to wear shorts instead of the scaled panties. “Hi,” the girl chirped, as if she’d never done an absurd thing in her life. “I’m Robin, we spoke last night.”

“Right, nice to meet you,” Conner said, “what were you doing in my closet?”

“Needed to hide somewhere,” Robin said.

“Right, of course,” Conner agreed.

“Nice to meet you, I only got to meet the old Superman once, Batwoman introduced me,” Robin said, “old Batwoman, not new Batwoman, who isn’t Batwoman yet, but she’s going to be.”

“I knew she was retiring,” Conner said.

“Yeah, she’s kind of the coolest, but new Batwoman’s pretty cool too,” Robin said.

“Well, you’ll be pleased to know, I’m the cooler Superman, the old Superman hasn’t been cool a day in his life,” Conner said.

“I thought he was pretty cool, you know, crazy power, all around good person, saved the world more times than anyone can count, it’s pretty cool.”

“Kid, the closest old Superman has ever been to cool was the time he had a mullet, and I cannot tell you how uncool that was,” Conner said.

“It’s Robin, not kid.” All these years and Conner still had trouble with that. Stephanie Brown had never been Robin in his eyes, neither had Damian Wayne. They wore the right colours, ran with the right crowd, followed the right manifesto, but Tim Drake was Robin, his Robin, always would be.

“Where’d you pick this one up?” Conner asked.

“Helped us out with a case about a year ago and sort of never went away,” Batman confessed.

“What’s Batman without Robin, after all,” Robin added. Conner had definitely heard that one before. Or the sentiment, at least. Maybe there could be someone else who deserved to be called Robin after all.

“What have you got on the copycat case?” Batman asked. Introductions and small talk were over, she was never much one for that sort of thing in the first place.

Conner liked Cass. She was always his favourite after Tim. Their dating phase had been awkward, but they’d ended almost as amicably as he and the other Cassie had. Even if they hadn’t though, the competition wasn’t exactly outstanding. Old Batman and old Nightwing never liked him very much, let alone trusted him, and they had a bad habit of making Tim miserable. Red Hood and Flamebird actively tried to kill Tim on more than one occasion, and Tim let that sort of thing go too easily, so Conner held the grudge for him. New Nightwing was really low on the list, acting like she could take Tim’s place when he was shattered by the loss of Robin with no consideration for his feelings on the matter, constantly mistrusting him and putting them in danger, always so entitled to his trust and personal life, letting him mourn and cry for her, knowing that Tim was sad because of her and doing nothing about it. Tim had mourned Conner too, but Conner had no say in that, and if he could have stopped Tim’s suffering even a second sooner, there was nothing he wouldn’t have done. Signal was in third, Conner had never really hung out with the guy, but the few times they had met he seemed like the kind of person he would like to get to know better, but probably never would, and as far as he was aware, he’d never actively degraded and abused and attacked Tim, which was for some reason an impressive feat in that family.

The point was, Conner was glad Cass had come to deal with the Joker copycat herself, he wasn’t sure how accountable he could have been held if Red Hood had shown up guns blazing on his turf.

“You’re sure it can’t be the real deal?” Conner asked.

“Hood and I checked on the body ourselves last night, it’s the real deal, been in the dirt for years, he’s all decomposed and everything,” Robin said with a disgusted shudder.

“How long ago did this happen? Who did it?” Conner asked.

“Few years,” Batman said with a noncommittal shrug. Conner narrowed his eyes, Cassandra Cain was an expert on body language, but there was something too casual in her behaviour, she wasn’t giving him all the facts. “I wasn’t there, don’t know all the details, we buried him behind Arkham and kept quiet about it.”

“How come?” Conner asked.

“Big news, lots of unwanted attention, didn’t want to stir up a power-grab when people found out he was dead,” Batman said.

Conner nodded slowly. Still suspicious, but he knew better than to argue with a bat. “Commissioner Sawyer has a file ready to go missing down at the station, you two want a lift?” Tim always complained about how hard it was to swing around Metropolis without Gotham’s cracked rooftops and gargoyles, sturdy and ready to be snagged by grappling hooks. Metropolis was all glass and smooth skyscrapers.

“Too conspicuous, brought the car,” Batman said.

“Right, fair enough,” Conner agreed.

“She mention what kind of file?” Batman asked.

“I think paper, less likely for someone to notice it goes missing,” Conner said, “oh, shit, I forgot about the reading thing, I should have told her to make it audio.”

“Been getting better,” Batman admitted. She was. She could read for the most part, but some nuances and long words were completely lost on her on paper. Voices she’d learned to read, bodies she could read, letters still had a way of eluding her.

“Besides, we’ve got a guy for this kind of stuff,” Robin said.

“Oh.” Right. Conner had heard about the World’s Greatest Detective, mostly rumours and whispers. The man working as Batman’s right-hand man, she was the crime fighter, he was the crime solver, like if the Batman and Bruce Wayne halves of the first bat were separated into a polished team. His Robin.

“Detective will figure this out,” Batman promised.

“Yeah, I’m sure he will.” He’d never rest until he did. “How is he?”

He shouldn’t care. Tim never called. He ignored Conner’s attempts to reach out. Conner had run to Gotham in a panic after a month of hearing nothing. A couple days of radio silence didn’t even turn up on Conner’s radar, Tim used to check in once a week, but circumstances were special, Tim would be overwhelmed and Conner could respect his need for space, but a whole month of nothing, that set him off. The old Batman shooed him away with a statement about how Tim was busy, and Conner wasn’t welcome. For months, Conner tried to call, but Tim never answered. It wasn’t until more than half a year had passed that he heard Tim whisper his name out a window somewhere, telling him he was okay, alive, and safe, telling him not to come. So, Conner didn’t answer the call, he stayed away. Even after three years, Conner trusted him. Tim always had a plan. He always played a bigger game. If he needed Conner off the board, fine, he could be patient. A little warning before he lost his best friend would have been nice though.

“Better,” Batman said. Conner didn’t like the sound of that. “He misses you.”

“Well, he still has my number.” Conner meant for it to sound bitter. It didn’t. Three years later, he just wanted his best friend to call. It was getting hard to trust he had good intentions when cutting him off.

Batman hummed before reaching into a pouch on her utility belt. She handed Conner a small earpiece.

“We’ll be in touch,” Batman said. “Robin, let’s go.”

“Bye Superman,” Robin said. She whispered to Batman, quiet, but not quiet enough to dodge Superman’s ears. “It’s really okay to just give him that?”

“He’s Superman, of course,” Batman said.

Superman felt proud. Hell yeah he was Superman, and Superman and Batman had always been friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everybody, little announcement to warn that there won't be an update next week for a couple of reasons. First of all, my sisters and I are home for the holidays, so I'll be busy spending time with them, and second, I've hit a little bit of a roadblock, just a little thing that I'm finding I can't write around for much longer.
> 
> I need a job for Conner, other than being Superman, of course, if anyone who likes this series has any thoughts or ideas, I'd be really grateful to hear them.
> 
> Thanks again for reading, this series will be back in a couple weeks. Happy holidays everyone.


	5. Chapter 5

Cass dropped Carrie off at the cave before she went to her brother’s apartment. She complained but understood why she wasn’t invited on this one.

Tim’s apartment was a special space. As far as she knew, Cass was the only one who regularly visited. Carrie tagged along sometimes, but it was more likely for Tim to go to the cave if they needed to work a case together. Duke and Tim talked, sometimes even about things that had nothing to do with capes and masks, but communication was almost exclusively carried out by text with the two of them. Dick and Steph both visited infrequently, less often after Dick triggered an incident by arriving without invitation or warning. Bruce had been by once when he first moved in, as far as Cass knew, that was the only time, he for the most part respected his son’s space and waited for him to come to the manor. She thought Dick had maybe brought Damian along once, but she wasn’t sure. After all these years, all his actions, Jason was not invited, Cass had broken his arm when he suggested they impose without permission. This was Tim’s space, he needed personal space. Somewhere to take off the masks and sit without anyone seeing him, or interrupting him, or scaring him. If someone wanted to spend time with him, they could do it in their space, Tim’s space was for him and his work and his obsession. Batman would always be invited, but some days, she felt like she was the only one.

“Detective,” Cass greeted as she entered the room.

Tim was good at hiding how he jumped when she snuck up on him. Anyone else wouldn’t have noticed. Probably not a good day to go scaring him, but Cass really couldn’t help it. He spun his chair around to face her but before he could say anything there was the scampering of paws echoing down the halls. Damian jumped around Cass’ knees, barking happily. Damian the French bulldog, of course, not Damian the human, whose face still turned red with frustration whenever they had to clarify. She knelt down to let the good boy slobber all over her face in greeting. He dropped the tension in the room several degrees as Tim watched the fond greeting from his seat.

“Hello buddy,” Cass said in a tone as close to a coo as she would ever get. She lifted the French bulldog in her arms like a baby and scratched him between the ears.

“Sometimes, I think he likes you more than he likes me,” Tim said, his shoulders dropped, and he forced his voice to sound relaxed.

“Hope so,” Cass said. She took a chicken treat from a special compartment in her glove and Damian happily licked it off her fingers.

“Bribery is cheating,” Tim said.

“Says who?” Cass asked. She lowered the dog to the floor, and he went scampering over to Tim instead, curling up around his feet and settling in to just spend time with the humans. She loved that dog. He took good care of her brother. Gave him something to take care of, a reason to keep himself alive, or some days just to get himself outside for half an hour.

“You have the case?” Tim asked.

Cass handed Tim an envelope far too thin for his liking.

He looked bad.

He was wearing his mask tonight. It had been a while since he wore his mask inside his apartment, usually it was saved for the days he was forced to investigate the streets in-person. It was a featureless black mask that covered his entire face. Tim used to wear it every day, he couldn’t bear to walk past his own reflection without a mask. These days he only wore one when he was in public, or when he was having a bad day.

This would definitely qualify for a bad day.

“What did Superman have to say on the matter?” Tim asked.

“Not much, only happened last night, called us right away,” Cass said.

Tim hummed. “Well, I’ll look over this and get back to you.”

They were both silent. Cass didn’t take her queue to leave.

“How is he?” Tim asked, his voice soft and timid.

“Good,” Cass admitted, “he misses you.”

“Right,” Tim said. He wished he hadn’t asked. He opened the file and his eyes didn’t absorb a single word of the report while his sister kept watching him.

“You should call him,” Cass continued.

Tim made a sound adjacent to a laugh, a scoff or a snort, he didn’t laugh these days, too risky. “Right, and say what?”

“You miss him,” Cass advised.

“Sure, and where do we go from there? I can’t be the friend he remembers, I can’t just call him up and everything goes back to the way they were, Bart throws a big party and we all ride off into the sunset to live happily ever after, I’m not the person he misses, anymore, Cass,” Tim said.

“You’re calling him,” Cass said.

“No, I’m not,” Tim said.

“Gave him a communicator, your personal channel,” Cass said.

“What? Why would you do that?”

“His city, you need to talk while you work your case.”

“My…? No. No, no, no, Cass, you said you wanted my opinion, you wanted me to read a file and tell you if I thought I did it, I’m not working this case,” Tim declared.

“It’s a mystery, your case.” Mysteries were generally Tim’s job. She left him to all the puzzles and brain teasers, she let him solve the things she couldn’t wrap her head around while she waded up to her shoulders in the filthy streets dealing in justice by hand, following his leads as he found them.

“Not this one, call Barbara, or Duke, I don’t care, anyone but me,” Tim pleaded.

“Your case,” Cass repeated.

“Cass, please, I can’t do this,” Tim insisted.

“This case is important,” Cass said, “who else do you trust?”

Tim was trembling with the case file still in his hands.

“You, me, Superman, our case,” Cass decided.

“I don’t want to bring Conner into this, I don’t want him to see me like this,” Tim begged.

Cass approached. She took hold of the mask and peeled it slowly away from his face. Tim’s breath hitched. His face was sweaty, and his hair matted. He’d most likely put the mask on the moment she left the night before and hadn’t taken it off no matter how sweaty and uncomfortable he got.

He couldn’t risk seeing his own face.

The grin carved in his cheeks, was as healed and faded as it would ever be, still forcing his lips into a painful smile while frightened tears poured down his face.

“You’re Tim,” Cass declared. After everything, still Tim, still her brother, her Robin, her Detective. “Tim with a few more scars.”

“A few?” Tim’s voice cracked. He shut his mouth. He needed to calm down, he couldn’t lose his temper. He couldn’t lose himself. He couldn’t. He couldn’t. “I can’t do this case.” He held out the folder. “Take this to Barbara, I can’t do this.”

“You can,” Cass insisted, “I trust you.”

Tim swallowed a sob. He couldn’t. He truly couldn’t.

“What if it’s me, Cass?” he asked. “What if I killed her, what if I didn’t beat him, what if I’m still only what he made me, and I’ve been fooling all of you all this time, what if I solve the mystery and I don’t like the ending?”

“It isn’t you,” Cass said with enough confidence that Tim almost believed her.

“And if it is?”

“Then there’s no one better to catch you.”

She had a point. Even Barbara could subconsciously bring herself to ignore evidence that could imply Tim’s guilt. She’d done it before. But there was no one in the whole world who trusted Tim as little as Tim did.

“I’ll take the case, but Kon is never allowed to see me, I don’t care what important business is going on, Cricket can come back to Gotham but you’re the one who goes to Metropolis if he needs someone there physically,” Tim said.

“Fine, I won’t force that, but you need to talk,” Cass said. Although the idea of leaving Tim alone to deal with Cricket under any circumstances was unattractive, they could barely handle him together. But she needed Tim’s cooperation.

“Fine, but only because it’s his city, and when I call him, I want you on the line too, you don’t need to say anything, but you’re online, listening,” Tim said.

“Fine.”

“Fine.”

For a moment the siblings remained still, each daring the other to change their mind. Tim at last collapsed backwards in his seat.

“Would you kill me? If it really is me?” he asked meekly.

“Never,” Cass said.

“Would you take care of Damian if I killed me?” he asked.

“No, not if you kill you,” she said.

He drew his mangled lips tight together.

Cass decided her brother needed a hug. She pulled him out of his chair to deliver.

“We’ll be okay,” she promised.

“Okay,” he agreed.

“Call Superman.”

That scoff or snort again. “You haven’t left me much choice, you know, if this is all a big scheme to get me to talk to him, there were less traumatic ways to go about it.”

“I wish it was.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow I'm so sorry this is late, the winter break was a little crazy and so was getting back to school. I'll try not to, but don't be surprised if there are more late chapters on the horizon.
> 
> Well, things got a bit heavy here. Going behind the scenes a little, originally I had two ideas for a future fic, one was Tim and Kon reconnecting after drifting apart, and the other was Cass as Batman and Tim as the Joker facing off. I ended up fusing the two after I realized Tim needed an excuse to stop talking to Kon for three years. I might write a one shot one day for a proper Tim and Cass face off, but probably no time soon.
> 
> I know people usually make Tim a cat person, but I really loved the French bulldog. He's a good boy.
> 
> Thanks so much for reading and your patience. I'm still accepting suggestions for Kon to get a job, I've got a couple of ideas but nothing seems to fit quite right yet. Thanks.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Discussion of suicide

There was a strange, irritating buzzing of radio static in Conner’s apartment, it was driving him nuts before he remembered Batman’s gift from the night before. He cursed under his breath and flew for the earpiece he’d placed on his kitchen counter, right next to the toaster.

“Hello? Batman?” Conner said.

There was a beat of silence. Conner could hear breathing on the other end.

“Hi, Superman.”

“Tim.”

If it hadn’t been an earpiece, Conner would have dropped the phone. It had been three years since he’d last heard his best friend’s voice.

“Don’t know about you, Superman, but I’m wearing a mask over here.” The humour in his voice was strained. He sounded tired. Tim always sounded tired, but this was a different tired. He was tired, and cold, but something in Conner’s chest felt like it was melting.

“You know I can’t hide a face like this,” Conner quipped back.

“How you haven’t been exposed to the whole world still baffles me, you don’t even wear the stupid sunglasses anymore,” Tim admitted. 

“They were in style at the time,” Conner said.

“Sure, they were, just like the fade cut.”

“You were the third Robin, you don’t get to judge me for being a little out of date, at least I was original.”

“You ripped off Cassie for your costume for years, she did the t-shirt and jeans look better than you, and we all know it.”

“At least I wore my underwear on the inside.”

Tim made a strange snorting noise. It was just so easy, falling back into old arguments, picking up like a game left on pause. There wasn’t any thought behind it, Tim just opened his mouth and the words came pouring out as Conner commanded them. “Fine, you’ve got me there, no good excuse for that one.”

“Don’t even get me started on your naming habits, Red Robin might be the worst hero name there’s ever been,” Conner added.

“That reminds me, congratulations,” Tim said, “on Superman, if anyone’s earned a mantle, it’s you. Tell Cassie congratulations on Wonder Woman too, I know it’s a little late, but better late than never I guess.”

“Thanks, it’s pretty cool,” Conner agreed, “Bart’s throwing a party, you know how he is, the gang would love to see you, you can congratulate Cassie yourself.”

“Oh.” Conner knew that tremble in Tim’s voice. Barely there, but a frightened quiver nonetheless, the kind that came out when he was getting driven in a corner and didn’t have any good excuses on standby. “I don’t think I should, it would be weird, and it’s your party, and I have this case, and all my other cases.”

“Wouldn’t be weird at all,” Conner interrupted, “I want you there, we’d all be happy to have you there.”

“I really shouldn’t.” Not can’t, not even won’t, but shouldn’t.

“Well, you can, the invitation’s always been open.”

“I know, just, not this time.”

“Yeah, yeah, okay.”

He was disappointed. He had no right to be, Tim hadn’t shown up to a party in three years. But he’d thought it would be different if Tim heard him ask with his own voice.

“I have information on your case,” Tim said, abruptly.

“Right, what have you got?” Conner asked.

“Well, we know it isn’t the original Joker, Hood and Robin checked that lead the other night,” Tim said.

“Right, can’t believe you let that creep around that sweet little kid.”

“Whether we like it or not, he’s family.”

“He tried to kill the last two Robins who came before her.”

“Not true, the two Robins before her were Signal and Flamebird, no attempt was ever made on Signal’s life orchestrated by the Red Hood, checkmate, old friend.”

“Ugh, don’t say that, you make us sound like a couple of old men playing chess in a park somewhere, and we’ve probably been mortal enemies our whole lives.” Tim made the weird noise again. Half a scoff and half a snort, definitely not a laugh.

“Well, your point is disproven, Hood has only attempted to kill half the Robins, the previous Nightwing, Flamebird, and myself, with a zero percent success rate, may I note,” Tim said.

“Fifty percent is not great odds,” Conner pointed out.

“You miss the zero percent success rate, he had a fifty percent of trying to kill her, and a zero percent chance of actually killing her,” Tim corrected.

“Whatever, he’s still a murderous nut-job, I can’t believe he isn’t behind bars,” Conner muttered.

“Still family.”

“Has he been doing any better these last few years? I know he was doing okay, y’know, back then, but he’s kept it up? Still no relapses?” Conner asked.

“No, we’re officially dubbed him completely free of pit influence,” Tim said.

“Great, so he can’t use that excuse anymore.”

“Stop, he’s really doing better, I think moving back into the manor will do him a lot of good.”

“He moved back into the manor? When did that happen?” Conner asked.

“About a month ago after Batman and I kept him from freezing to death on a suicide mission to Nanda Parbat,” Tim said.

“Huh, I heard he’d gotten himself into some trouble recently,” Conner said.

“Yeah, he tried to take on a couple hundred ninja without backup, even if Batman and I did make it in time to save his life, he still got roughed up pretty bad, he’s looking for options, but odds are the Red Hood as he was before is done,” Tim said.

“Really? I didn’t know it was that bad,” Conner said.

“He lost a leg and an eye, Barbara’s trying to help him out with the idea he could never fight crime again, at least not physically, but he’s stubborn,” Tim said.

“Wow, that sounds rough,” Conner said.

“He’s coming around,” Tim said, “if nothing else, being stuck in the manor has forced him to spend some more time with the family.”

“You say that like it’s a good thing.”

“It is.”

“Sure, just know that this Superman isn’t humble enough to say I told you so should things go south.”

“Noted, should we get to the case sometime tonight?”

“Oh, right.” He’d almost let himself forget, let him believe that Tim was finally ready to talk again. “The Joker’s really buried in some backyard somewhere? Just dead, and hidden, and no one noticed for three years?” Conner asked.

“Yeah, they buried him behind Arkham, the bats all know, of course, so does Harley, she let the information slip to Ivy and Catwoman, some of the other old Rogues figured it out too, I think Riddler, Penguin, and Bane all knew, but Bane kicked it two years ago, and Riddler leaves most of his business to Enigma these days, and there’s no way he would just tell her what happened to him, so Penguin’s the only one who might be in a position to use the info, but I’m sure he wants that kind of panic just as little as we do. There might be others, but we aren’t really sure. Lots of people, especially in Gotham noticed he stopped showing up, some people have speculated he’d died, but there weren’t many guests to his last show, and without a body, no one wants to let their guard down. After all, if anyone could hide underground and return to terrorizing people three years later, he’d be the guy.”

“But he’s just dead, really dead,” Conner said.

“Yeah,” Tim agreed, his voice shaking that tiny bit. “He’s really dead.”

“Were you there? His last show, as you called it?” Conner asked.

“Yeah, didn’t stick around for the funeral though,” Tim admitted.

“You know who killed him?”

There was a heavy pause.

“Yeah. I do.”

Another pause.

“So,” Tim continued, “about our guy, we’ve got a couple of broad possibilities, and I’m throwing together a list of suspects right not.”

Not subtle, Tim was usually better.

“Option one, we have a copycat, probably a twisted fan of the original who decided to pick up the fight when he decided the original wasn’t coming back. Two, someone’s using the Joker as a cover up, drawing suspicion away from an average killer by making it look like a famous serial killer. Three, unlikely, but not impossible, a ghost, I don’t know how he would be killing if he wasn’t corporeal, but we can’t rule it out entirely. And lastly, option four, don’t like this one as much, but it’s possible the Joker chose and trained an heir to his clownery before his death, and the newest clown prince is making his move now, why now, I’m not sure. Personally, I like option two best, it would explain why the crime took place in Metropolis instead of Gotham, and it doesn’t involve a Joker Junior running around.”

“Okay, sounds, solid.” Tim’s voice was quivering the whole time he spoke. This case had him spooked. “What can I do to help? Let’s wrap this case up as quickly as possible.”

“I want nothing more,” Tim agreed.

“So, what do you need?” Conner asked again.

“I need more information on the victim, any sketchy records, anyone who might hold a grudge, I’ve hardly got a name in this file you gave us,” Tim said.

“You can’t search her up in your fancy computer network?”

“Do you want to be a part of this case or not?” Tim asked.

“My city, my case, if anyone’s hanging up on anyone, it’s going to be me this time,” Conner said.

For a moment Conner didn’t realize why Tim wasn’t responding to his tease.

“I’m sorry,” Tim said. “I really did mean to call, but things went bad in Gotham, people got hurt, then the Joker died, and I… I’ve had a rough couple of years, Kon, things are different, now, I’m different now.”

“Are you okay?” Conner asked, “now?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Do you want me there?”

“No, no, I just want this case off my desk.”

“Okay, I’ll get you that info on the victim, I can drop it off.”

“Bring it to the Batcave, they’ll forward it to me.”

Conner scowled. It would be nicer if they could meet face to face.

“Okay,” Conner agreed.

Tim hung up abruptly.

He leaned forwards in the dry bathtub, letting his mask bounce against his knees. He turned the razor blade over in his hands again and again. He’d been in the bathtub five times in the past three years. Three times that first year, when the therapy wasn’t working, and he still heard him the back of his brain, and sometimes for weeks on end he couldn’t stop the laughing he’d sat in the bathtub three times with a razor blade between his fingers. The first time he’d chickened out. He unlocked the door after contemplating for an hour and pretended nothing was wrong while his family stared at his scars with those sad eyes. The second time he carved big grins in his wrists to match the one he’d had carved on his face. They had lots of friends, but none so deep, or so he thought. He hadn’t cut deep enough and woke up in the bathtub an hour later. He unlocked the door again and went back downstairs. By the third time, his family were getting wise. They noticed the scars, and Damian the human kicked the door down after Tim had only sliced one curved smile. The fourth one was a relapse. It had almost cost him his chance to get out of the manor. It was within the first month of moving out, he didn’t have Damian the dog yet, and he just hated that his wrists weren’t even, and without needing to worry about his family stopping him, he slit a match. One scar was more faded than the other, that still drove him crazy some days.

Tim heard scratching and whimpering at the bathroom door. Looked like the fifth trip to the bathtub would end like the first.

Tim unlocked the door and Damian the dog began to circle his feet. Tim fell to his knees and let the dog climb all over him, licking at his mask and crawling in his lap.

If there was a sixth trip to the bathtub, that would be the end of it. Tim decided. Damian the human would take Damian the dog if Cass wouldn’t take him. He would come back when he solved the case. When he came to the indisputable conclusion he predicted, he would kill the Joker all over again. And he would kill him for good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big chapter this week, Tim and Kon get to talk, some world building, and Tim's got some issues. I don't think I'll be able to get a chapter out next week, my inspiration well for this fic is running a bit dry, so I'm gonna leave it for a week and hopefully be back the week after.
> 
> Thanks for reading.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks everybody for reading! This fic isn't fully written yet, but I'm really excited about it and look forward to finishing this with all of you. This fic takes place I imagine around 5-10 years in the future? And people are allowed to age in this universe, so Bruce is old now. Also, no one can tell me that Conner isn't going to be tall when he grows up, Clark and Lex are both giants, the idea that Conner is under six feet when he's fully grown is inconceivable to me. Cassie's tall too because she's a demigoddess because obviously we're in the pre-n52 here.
> 
> For convenience I'm going to list all of the relevant monikers going into the next chapter:
> 
> Cassandra Cain is Batman  
> Tim Drake is the World's Greatest Detective, but we'll just call him Detective  
> Carrie Kelley is Robin  
> Damian Wayne is Flamebird  
> Stephanie Brown is Nightwing  
> Duke Thomas is the Signal  
> Nell Little is Batgirl  
> Kate Kane is Batwoman  
> Harper Row is going to be Batwoman very soon  
> Barbara Gordon is Oracle but only part time  
> Jon Kent is Superboy  
> Cassie Sandsmark is Wonder Woman as of very recently  
> Bart Allen is Mercury  
> Wally West is the Flash  
> Irey West is Impulse
> 
> There are some other ones too, but these are the only ones that you're really going to need in advance, any others will come up later.
> 
> Thanks so much for reading, I hope you all enjoy it, I'm really excited to go forward with this.


End file.
